Life and select literary remains of Sam Houston of Texas/Chapter 25
CHAPTER XXV.
In November, 1857, while still acting as United States Senator, Gen. Houston was a candidate for Governor, and was defeated by Hardin R. Runnels.[1] In November, 1859, he was again a candidate, and defeated Governor Runnels.[2] In both instances he was an independent candidate, running against the regular Democratic nominee.
On the 21st December, 1859, Sam Houston was inaugurated Governor of Texas. Political excitement was intense. The questions which had been discussed, from the adoption of the Federal Constitution, and the Virginia and Kentucky resolutions of 1798 and 1799, down to the adoption by Congress of the Fugitive Slave Bill, had nearly reached their issue in the wager of battle. The gathering clouds foretokened the coming storm. The great political canvass was just opening which resulted, in November, i860, in the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States. Houston was independent in politics at this time, but he had no sympathy with the party that elected Lincoln as President, although he was ardently attached to the Union, and as ardently opposed to secession.
He commenced his Gubernatorial administration with a Legislature not in harmony with him, and from this time up to March 18, 1861, when he ceased to be Governor, he was beset by unusual difficulties. Agitation pervaded the State. Fires, supposed to be incendiary, occurred frequently in various parts of the Territory. The Indians had been removed from their reservation, but continued to be more hostile and barbarous than ever. Cortina frequently committed depredations on the Rio Grande frontier, crossing to the Texas side, and committing thefts and murders. To obtain rate information, commissioners were sent to the Rio Grande, after which, Major Forbes Britton was dispatched to Washington to secure protection on that border. These measures resulted in an order from the War Department to Col. Robert E. Lee, then in command in Texas, to cross the river, if necessary, and break up Cortina's band. With equal promptness Gov. Houston used his best efforts to protect the frontier. A few days after his inauguration he ordered Captains W. C. Dalrymple, Edward Burleson, and John C. Connor to raise companies of sixty men for frontier protection. In February Lieutenants White, Salmon, and Walker were directed to raise companies of twenty-five men each.
The frontier continued to be harassed. The Governor, on the 9th of March, empowered each Chief-Justice of the frontier counties, to call out a company of fifteen men at any time necessary. Captain Peter Tomlinson was authorized to raise a company of forty-eight men, to scour the country between the Frio and the Rio Grande. To compel the Indians to return to their own country. Col. M. T. Johnson organized an expedition. A party of savages, who had been committing serious depredations in Palo Pinto and Jack Counties, were pursued, later in the year, by Captain L, S. Ross, and severely punished.
A controversy appeared in the news journals of May, 1860, between Governor Houston and the Comptroller of the State, Hon. Clement R. Johns. The points in debate do not seem to have been any charges of peculation, fraud, or corruption, but wholly involve the question of executing a law, and supervising and attending to its execution.
But the exciting scenes of the Presidential election of 1860 absorbed public attention.[3] Governor Houston addressed letters to the Governors of the other Southern States, proposing some concerted action; to these letters there came no favorable response. On the 17th December he issued a proclamation, convening the Legislature in extra session, January 21, 1861. His message deplored the election of Messrs. Lincoln and Hamlin, but in it he could see no cause for the immediate and separate secession of Texas. He informed the Legislature that he had ordered an election to be held on the first Monday in February, to elect delegates to a Convention of the Southern States, contemplated by the joint resolution of February 16, 1858, to devise means for the maintenance of their Constitutional rights, and to demand redress for the grievances they had been suffering at the hands of many of the Northern States. Neither the Legislature nor the leading politicians of the State harmonized with the sentiments of Governor Houston. The people by common consent, instead of waiting until the first Monday in February, and electing delegates to a Convention of the Southern States as contemplated in the act of February, 1858, and ordered by the Governor's proclamation on the 8th of January, elected delegates to a State Convention, composed of two members for every member of the House of Representatives. This Convention met in Austin, January 23, 1861, and was organized by electing Oran M. Roberts, President, and R. T, Browrigg, Secretary. The Legislature promptly recognized the Convention, although not specially summoned by the Executive of the State, and the Governor announced that he would not be a barrier to the wishes of the people of the State. The Ordinance of Secession was passed, revoking the ordinance adopted in Convention on the 4th July, 1845, and declaring that Texas "is a separate, sovereign State, and that her citizens and people are absolved from all allegiance to the United States or the Government thereof." The Legislature and Convention both adjourned after the adoption of the ordinance. In accordance with the ordinance of the Convention, Governor Houston issued his proclamation for an election to be held on the 23d February, at which the people were requested to vote for or against secession. The election was held, and resulted in 39,415 votes for, and 13,841 votes against secession.
On the 4th of March the Convention re-assembled, and sent a committee to confer with the Governor, and announce to him that "Texas was now a free, sovereign, and independent State," free from and independent of that Union, into which fifteen years before it had gone with such enthusiasm. Governor Houston contended that the functions of the Convention had ceased with the passage of the ordinance of secession, and its submission to the vote of the people, and protested against any further action by the Convention. Notwithstanding the Governor's protest, on the same day the Convention passed an ordinance uniting Texas with the new Confederation, which had been formed at Montgomery, Alabama. On the 14th of March the Convention passed an additional ordinance, requiring all State officers to take the oath of allegiance to the Constitution of the "Confederate States," adopted and published by the Convention then sitting at Montgomery, Alabama. Governor Houston and the Secretary of State, Hon. E. W. Cave, refused to take said oath. Their offices were declared vacant. The other public officers took the required oath, and were continued in office. Hon. Edward Clark, the Lieutenant-Governor, having taken the prescribed oath to support the Constitution of the "Confederate States," was sworn in and duly installed as Governor on the 1 6th of March. The office building of the Governor continued to be occupied by General Houston until the 18th of March, when Governor Clark entered the room before General Houston reached it in the morning, and thereafter held undisputed possession. The Legislature having re-assembled on March 18th, according to adjournment. General Houston sent a message to that body, setting forth the injustice of his removal, and protesting against the usurpation of the office of Governor by Governor Edward Clark. This was the last act having any official significance which General Sam Houston ever performed. He quietly retired with his family to his home at Huntsville, and remained a passive spectator of passing events. The following letter, addressed to Col. Waite, of the United States Army, San Antonio, Texas, will explain itself:
"Austin, Texas, March 29, 1861.
"Dear Sir:—I have received intelligence that you have received, or will soon receive, orders to concentrate United States troops under your command at Indianola, in this State, to sustain me in the exercise of my official functions. Allow me most respectfully to decline any such assistance from the United States Government, and to most earnestly protest against the concentration of troops or fortifications in Texas, and request that you remove all such troops out of this State at the earliest day practicable, or, at any rate, by all means take no action toward a hostile movement till further ordered by the Government at Washington city, or particularly of Texas.
"Thine, Sam Houston."
Gen. Houston loved the Union. He did not believe the "Confederate States " could maintain their independence, and yet he allowed his oldest son to enter the Confederate army. The successes of the Confederate arms up to April, 1863, rather inclined him to believe that under Robert E. Lee, Stonewall Jackson, and a favoring Divine Providence the Confederacy might live, although opposed to his convictions.
- ↑ At the election in 1857, there were 56,180 votes polled. Hardin R. Runnels received 32,552; Sam Houston, 23,628, for Governor. F. R. Lubbock, 33,379; Jesse Grimes, 20,818; F. Smith, 878, for Lieut.-Governor.
- ↑ At the election in 1859, 64,027 votes were cast. Sam Houston received 36,257 votes; Hardin R. Runnels, 27,500, for Governor.
- ↑ Private letter to Gen. George Washington Crawford, of Washington, Texas.
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Austin, 8th September, 1860.
"My Dear General:—Your favor has this moment been received, and I as frankly reply as you wrote to me. Personally, I like Breckinridge more than either of the candidates in the field, and 'tis because he is an amiable gentleman, as well as a man of fine intelligence, and I think him quite as honest as either of the other candidates. My wish and object is to beat Lincoln with any man in the field. The question is, how is this to be done? If Breckinridge alone were in the field opposed to Lincoln, could he do it? I think not. Now! why not? Because, if he were to get all the Southern States, as he would do, could that elect him? No! Could he certainly get any free State? I think not, brought forward as he was by YanceyRhett-Keitt and the disunion influence, and supported by these men and others equally odious to the national feeling. His friends, too, of the N. Y. Herald, Col. Orr, and others, concede that he stands no chance of election. If a Union ticket is supported North and South, it can be elected, I think, and let the electors only be pledged to cast their votes for the strongest man against Lincoln, and in this way he may be defeated, otherwise I think Lincoln will be elected by the electoral colleges. By voting for a Union ticket it will not exclude Mr. Breckinridge if he stands on the Union principle, and, if he does not, no one ought to vote for him, or any other man who can not stand there. By voting for men, as electors, who are pledged to principle, and not to this or that individual, the design of the Constitution will be answered. It is certainly as safe for the country to rely on the discretion and judgment of electors, acting under the responsibility of a Constitutional obligation, as it is to rely on the members of a Convention to nominate a candidate, and, therefore, I am willing to rely on the honesty and discretion of the electors, if any should be elected on the Union ticket, so to act and vote, if they can, to defeat Lincoln. This is what I go for, and any man before him that may be elected. I have sworn that I would never vote for any man, directly, who voted for or supported the Nebraska Bill. Douglas and Breckinridge are in the same category on this subject; and I might, by voting the Union ticket, indirectly vote for either. As for Mr. Bell, I regard him as a slim chance for a President, and would not directly vote for him, although he voted against the Nebraska Bill. There is a tale to that I So you see I do not go for man or men, but for principle, and if Mr. Bell should stand on any platform, after filching it, I can not help it, or for any consideration come out in favor of a man who has no chance of success, and who has allowed himself to be used by odious men, and for no good purpose that I can perceive. So far as men are concerned I will look on with folded arms. So far as principle is concerned I will always be ready to speak out. Give our love to the ladies.
"Thine truly, Houston.
"P. S.—The mail is closing … How can a Jackson Democrat vote for Rhett or Yancey, or their representative?"